Opinion: China Communist Party's Trials

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I ... you know ... what I the wife of a high ranking Chinese official ... who confessed ... to murdering her British and business partner ... while this is on a charge for one day trial say about justice in China ... and the stability of the Communist Party ... can tell us to see what rights watch senior researcher Nicholas backed not ... usually Hong Kong based but is in your for a special appearance of us today on Opinion Journal Live ... Nicholas ... thinking ... so what is the political significance of this trial why should we care about ... with a huge political significance ... this trial tells us that there is deep in fighting ... of the higher reaches of the dish it ... really tells us ... how the knoll is used by the posse ... to govern the country and also to project the image of ... how China functions to the rest of the well now let's link this trial to that leadership Ms who is the wife of Bo Xilai ... a very high ranking official ... so that's the link ... on ... the is it normal ... or usual for someone links is such a high ranking official to be prosecuted ... it meant that we kids to the power struggle is a very tough ... well no one in China is advertised of a crime ... even member of the poppy is they have in the first a victim of political infighting ... the Pont de is corrupt from top to bottom ... anyone is liable to prosecution on corruption ... charges the only reason people are not prosecuted is because of patronage political patronage ... this trial is simply the outcome of the political infighting of a political decision that was taken many months ago when the Bo Xilai a wonder of the ... person who was trying to get into the next edition of the innocent him of the Politburo ... it was that the ... discharge of all responsibilities and ... take out and we don't know where he is right now was that Frank whittle no way he is so that we don't know where these states ... is going to be ... the one we know is that this trial will never have seen today of life's it ... is police chief ... had not run to the US consulate and spill the beans still everything about this mother ... who once this was in the hands this information was in and of the U S ... consulates in China had no other option but to bring its somewhat in the open and to have a trial ... this is what they've done is is a message that's China is handling this ... case ... because they have to go ... out the role of the wife of a spying Politburo member has killed a foreign national ... that they had to do something ... but what is interesting is that in the trial Denolf a Ties Gu Kailai to her husband's Even Villa husband is known to have interfere with the course of justice and to protect her ... from the fallout of does a good ... now now the party elites run China that small group of people ... this really caught a conundrum here because they wanna be seen as promoting justice to the same time ... they don't want the public ... to get upset about the revelations of corruption and wrongdoing at the very very top of China's political system ... so convoluted that was about how they're managing this trial ... and and what we're going to learn from it ... to know if we ever really going to learn the truth of what happened here ... with only the has nothing to do is just this is just a Cardiff only APUs traded show where everything gold that has been rehearsed before and every decision every exposure of any crime will and the role of any official has been carefully negotiated between the different factions this reunions is that the party as in mind one bit stage this trial one is the general public in China ... oh how do we hold accountable someone who is a high official link the there's a lot of ... unhappiness about corruption in the inner reaches of the park the among the citizenry ... the second origins is the rest of the well straight into this cave was already gone though they had to do something ... and if the bill would in cities the rank and five in the park to ... you know how do we handle this making them believe that justice was delivered even though of course nothing of the light quizzed on the altar of God not something that that Nicholas there's a lot more to say that ... he writes for the Wall Street Journal's op ed page from time to time it was back last ... human rights watch a senior researcher ... on China ... thank you Nicholas